If you're close to Tokyo, you have a chance to see 30 Teruo Ishii films theatrically. And if you're not close to Tokyo, then now is the time to start thinking how to change that.

Celebrating the release of the new documentary film [url="http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/ff20100730a3.html"]Ishii Teruo: Eiga Tamashi[/url], Cinema Vera will screen 30 of Ishii's movies June 31-September 3. The selection includes many of his early films (scifi, noir), seminal pinky violence works, and some 1990's movies.

A little bit disappointed with the selection to be honest (I was hoping for more unreleased 70's gems) but there's a lot of great stuff there. May drop by for a few days if I get a chance.

I won't get my DVDs for two or three weeks, so you have plenty of time to "scoop" me. I imagine 3PD will be pretty tame stuff, as it pre-dates even the DELINQUENT GIRL BOSS movies and came out around the time of STRAY CAT ROCK. Just hope it's not ALL talk as I know about twenty words of Japanese. Will post for sure--you can't shut me up about these films.

THREE PRETTY DEVILS is extremely tame. Not that I expected sth. over the top, but this is mainly about girlies hanging out and having fun, not really much to do with "girlgang", more like a "seishun eiga". But if you are after sth like that: Watch the much better WET SAND IN AUGUST by Fujita.

In March Toei will finally release Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs (1974) and the two New Female Prisoner Scorpion films (1976-&1977). Zero Woman is already available from Discotek and HK Video, both somewhat flawed releases, and the New Female Prisoners can be found in Pathe's Sasori box set, but those are NTSC to PAL conversions.

Both New Female Prisoners are good films, though, especially the first one which is kinda standard genre film (in a good way) until the amazing ending. It's a loose remake of the original Meiko Kaji movie but not to the extent that you'd feel like watching the same movie again. The second film features an entirely new storyline. Both films feature strong cast with the edge going for the second film in which the evil warden is played by none other than Toei's No. 1 karate villain Masashi Ishibashi. Sasori is portrayed in these films by Yumi Takigawa and Yoko Natsuki respectively.

Toei is typically strong when it comes to colors and contrast, but sharpness (or the lack of it) has been their problem in the recent years. If they get these discs right, they could all be worthy upgrades.

I'm glad Toei is low pricing only the first six Abashiri's this time. I have the first two, and will now try to pick up the next four. I couldn't possibly have afforded all of them at once. Also interested in Kyoudai jingi if I have any money left over. Thankfully I own a lot of the other titles already.

Just taking a quick look, I don't think it's ever been released in home video format. Not on dvd for sure, but I don't think it ever came out on VHS either. It's a Toei film, so if it does come out on dvd some day, I won't miss it.

Koji Wakamatsu and Masao Adachi were among the most important political filmmakers in Japan in the 1960’s. The duo regularly “disguised” their works as pink cinema, but that didn’t keep the audiences from finding them, not to mention a whole generation of future filmmakers who were inspired by their film radicalism.

Wakamatsu (Go, Go, Second Time Virgin, 1969) was on his way back from the Cannes Film Festival when his screenwriter partner and director Masao Adachi (Gushing Prayer, 1971) suggested they would do something different. Wakamatsu, somewhat tired of working in the pink genre by then, agreed. The two men found themselves in Palestine, shooting a “news film” of PFLP (The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) for the Japanese extreme leftist group The Red Army. Wakamatsu himself was closely connected to some members, and also directed a film (United Red Army, 2007) of the movement almost three decades later.

Red Army/PFLP: Declaration of World War is not a documentary in the purest sense, but more of a propaganda film. Its message, directly encouraging the Japanese“comrades” to violence and taking up arms, would be quite disturbing if not seen from today’s point of view – that is, 40 years after the film was made. But then again, the world hasn’t changed all that much since then. The film got Wakamatsu on USA’s black list – up till today, he’s never been allowed to set his foot on American soil. While beyond ridiculous today, it was a very understandable decision at the time of the film’s release.

As a movie, Red Army/PFLP isn’t all that special. The majority of the film consists of propaganda speeches, typically accompanied by images of the Palestinian countryside. Wakamatsu and Adachi have, however, also captured interesting material of PFLP fighters. The value of this footage is not to be underestimated. The film was intended for native Japanese speakers, although subtitled versions were also created for foreign markets. In this case, however, dubbing would have been preferable. In subtitled form the heavy monologue floods easily distract from visual offering.

DVD

The R2J is out of print but can still be found for reasonable prices from second had stores. Barebones disc, but there is a thick booklet included. I'd take a photo but I forgot it home. I'll try to remember to edit a photo in here some day.